Paddlin’ Ed

Chattooga VI Gorge was on the agenda for Sunday 8/31 as part of a  Labor day weekend that had been a trilogy of gorges for me having run Watauga on Friday, followed by Nolichucky, and now Chattooga to wrap up a great weekend of paddling.  Having gotten up with John H. the evening before,  I met up with his group of mostly SRVCC members at the put in east of Clayton Ga.  Paddling in John’s group where John H. oc-1, Richard H. oc-1, James C. oc-1, David B. 0c-1, Bill H. in C-1 and Ann H. in fun-yak, plus paddlin-ed in k-1.

It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day warm temp. and clear water, running around 1.15 on the bridge gauge (around 300-350 cfs on the usgs with a good bit more coming in below from the feeder creeks due to rains a few days earlier).  The group had shuttle set when I arrived and they had headed down to the put in,  I took the path to above Bull Sluice and ran the Virgina slide and met the group at the put in for section IV below.  This was a fairly laid back group with several very good paddlers in it a couple of which new the run well.  Oddly,  I was the only kayaker in the group and most all of them where canoeists, seems like only a few years ago I was usually the only canoeist among kayakers.

Our group worked downstream at a nice leisurely pace,  playing the many rapids along the way and there are some nice ledges in the upper half.  Down at Woodall Shoals, about half the group did the far right to stay well clear of the infamous undercut concave ledge and hydralic hole on river left, and about half just walked around rather than scrape down the far right at this level.  Below the top hazard,  there is a wonderful long run down a series of ledges, chutes etc. with numerous runs and a nice degree of fall,  perfect for playing.   I caught an eddy about a third of the way down and took some really nice pictures of Bill, John, and David working from just below the top all the way down.  Myself I played it pretty good and the group pulled up to wait for me below.

On down we worked having a great time,  running 7 foot falls,  stopping for lunch at long creek falls,  running Raven chute, and just working the ledges and rapids along the way.  Gradually we worked our way down toward the 5 falls area,  running the de-cap slot of the “Entrance” rapid above then seems like myself and one other of the group did “Corkscrew”.   “Crack in the rock” had a lot of wood left and enough showing middle that it was best portaged rather than risk entrapment, followed for myself by an otter slide off the rocks river right just below.

John H. did a nice run of Jawbone, really smooth and clean.  I was the only other one to run in the group,  and one of the diagonals and I mixed it up a bit about halfway down but I rolled up clean at the bottom,  and ran on down around the left of hyro-electric rock below and waited for the others to portage.  Down at Sock-em-dog the group pulled up on the rocks on river left and scouted and watched a few boaters run.  While the rest of the group elected to lift over and portage,  I paddled over river right and worked to the staging eddy for the drop,  pulled out intending to try for the right slot and found plenty of current pushing toward and up onto the boof,  hammered down and went for it, popped over the top and tucked forward and dropped nicely upright without burying up much, but got just enough of a rock about 2-3 boat length out below to get roll practice just below there.

Down below Sock-em-dog we watched some others run the drop for a bit then head downstream to run “Shoulder-bone” just below on the left of center, making the hook to far left and back hard right down the run out.  Down below we ran the remaining  rapids to the lake and then did the most infamous rapid of all “Purgatory Rapid” (Ugh!!!!) otherwise know as the long, long, long, paddle down the lake and across the boat landing a couple of miles down.

Well it had been a wonderful day with a great group.  There are 30 or so pictures in my picture gallery.  It had been a great finish of Labor Day weekend for me, three days of great gorges.  SYOTR-Paddlin-ed